Rob Funderburg Jr.: Philanthropist committed to improving the community

Sunday

Jul 20, 2014 at 5:00 AM

By Jeff KolkeyRegister Star Media

Alpine Bank Chairman Rob Funderburg Jr. was introduced to the family business at a young age.

The third-generation banker, land developer and philanthropist grew up in Rockford and fondly recalls frequent visits to what was then Belvidere Bank.

“I would drive around with my dad on Saturday mornings to check on projects he was working on,” the 52-year-old said. “I was 17 when I started working at Alpine Bank as a teller and in operations.”

He’s been married to Cathy since 1993 and is the father of two. The family is known for its banking interests, land ownership and donations to worthy causes.

Funderburg’s father and aunt contributed money for Funderburg Stadium, which was built in 1967 and named in memory of his grandfather, Hugh K. Funderburg. Last year, Alpine Bank “contributed more than $700,000 to 350 community organizations,” Funderburg said. And the Funderburg Foundation donates thousands of dollars to area cultural, community and recreational organizations in Winnebago and Boone counties every year.

“The family is so unique in how they care for the community and the people in the community,” said Bill Roop, president and CEO of Alpine Bank. “I never cease to be amazed at how generous they are and how honorable they are.”

Funderburg succeeded his father, as his father had succeeded his grandfather, as leader of the family businesses. He was elected chairman of Alpine Bank & Trust Co. in 1992 after his father became ill and died.

Funderburg had grown up in Rockford. His father, remembered as a fair and honest businessman, taught Rob to always “stand next to the coach.”

“That has always been good advice. When the coach turns to find someone to put in the game, you are right there. I have had a lot of personal and business success because I remembered to stand next to the coach, and it doesn’t have to be a literal coach. It could be next to the customer you have been trying to woo.”

Funderburg attended a year at West High School and was all but driven out of Rockford schools when sports and extracurricular activities were canceled in 1976-77 — the infamous “Year Without Sports.”

“It was a year without everything, not just sports,” he said. “It’s always put in the context of sports, but the yearbook, band, everything was gone. Everybody who could afford to leave left.”

Funderburg was sent to Berkshire School in southwestern Massachusetts, a college-preparatory boarding school.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1985 from Denison University, a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio.

After taking over the family banks, Funderburg Farms and K-B Farms, Funderburg oversaw three decades of growth. Funderburg continued his father’s efforts to consolidate. Belvidere Bank merged with State Bank of Kirkland in 1991, Alpine Bank merged with Valley Bank in 1994, and he opened in 1996 a 46,500-square-foot Alpine Bank headquarters at East State Street and Mulford Road.

It was suddenly a rival to AMCORE Bank.

In the tidal wave of the Great Recession, Alpine Bank outlasted the overextended AMCORE (it closed in 2010) to become the dominant banking force with 19 branches, nearly $1 billion in deposits and 12 percent of all deposits in the region.

It was the worst economic climate since the Great Depression when his family rose to prominence.

Hugh Funderburg had moved to Belvidere from Ohio in 1911 to work in a canning factory that became Green Giant.

Hugh rose through the ranks to a management position and, in the midst of the Depression, scraped together enough cash to buy a controlling interest in Belvidere Bank in 1923. By pledging his personal assets, he stopped it from closing, according to the Rockford history book “Big Town, Little City” by Pat Cunningham.

“He hocked everything he had and got a loan to save the Belvidere Bank and ended up owning a large portion of that bank,” Roop said.

Hugh amassed 15,000 acres by the early 1960s, making his family the largest landholder in Boone County.

When Funderburg sold 3,379 acres at auction to raise $24.6 million in November 2011, his family still owned more than 7,500.

With stubbornly high unemployment and crime rates dogging the Rockford region, Funderburg has taken a leadership role as vice chairman of Transform Rockford. It’s a long-term movement to mobilize action to improve the social and economic well-being of the community and its residents in an attempt to reverse the region’s decline.

“For decades and decades, thousands have tied various initiatives on a regular basis to improve the community but this has been the one that has been a broad based community wide concerted effort. The community’s response has been remarkable so far, and I’m more hopeful and excited about our community’s future than ever before.”